The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday acquitted Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and three-term former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia Steel mill corruption case in a major relief ahead of the general election, reported Dawn.
With this development, Nawaz cleared another legal hurdle as he sought to make his political comeback as the next Pakistani premier. The Al-Azizia case was one of the two cases in which he was convicted, as Nawaz was acquitted in the Avenfield corruption case on November 29 by the same two-judge bench.
However, Nawaz still remains disqualified from holding public office by the Supreme Court in connection with the Panama Papers case. Additionally, the top Pakistani court had ruled earlier that the disqualification is for life. However, amendments were made to the Elections Act, 2017, seeking to limit the disqualification of lawmakers to five years.
What was the Al-Azizia case?
The Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case pertains to when Nawaz was unable to justify the source of funds provided to set up the steel mills and the Hill Metal Establishment (HME) in Saudi Arabia. He was sentenced to seven years in prison on December 24, 2018, and fined Rs 1.5 billion.
After Nawaz left for London in 2019 on medical grounds, he was declared a proclaimed offender by the IHC in 2020. After his return in October, the PML-N supremo filed two separate applications seeking restoration of his appeals against the convictions.
Nawaz argued that while he was abroad for medical treatment, the pending appeals were dismissed for non-prosecution. The application requested the court to revive the pending appeals to decide on these pleas on merit.
The High Court set aside the accountability court's verdict and accepted Nawaz's appeal after he said that the pending appeals were dismissed for non-prosecution while he was abroad. The plea had requested the court to revive the pending appeal on merit.
In response to the court's verdict, Nawaz's brother Shehbaz said that he was "vindicated" once again. "The sham cases created to disqualify a sitting prime minister are finally meeting their fate. The seven years wasted were not just a personal loss but a loss of development and prosperity of Pakistan," said Shehbaz on X.
Things going well for Nawaz
In November, an accountability court in Pakistan ordered authorities to release all movable and immovable properties seized from the former prime minister in 2020 in connection with a corruption case. Judge Muhammad Bashir of the Islamabad accountability court, while hearing the Toshakhana case against the former PM, read the verdict on November 10.
In 2020, an accountability court ordered the confiscation of the property owned by the former prime minister in the Toshakhana vehicles reference after he was declared an absconder by the Islamabad High Court.
The Toshakhana case file against Sharif accuses him of obtaining a vehicle from Toshakhana (the gift depository) by paying 15% of the price of the car. According to reports, Sharif was not holding any public office in 2008 but was given a vehicle without any justification.
Last month, the interim government 'suspended' the sentence awarded to the PML-N leader in the Al-Azizia reference, making him eligible to run the upcoming general elections. He was awarded a seven-year sentence in the case before his departure for London.
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